Sunday, February 15, 2009

A new project

It seems that just when I think I am done creating new beds, another idea comes into my head. This time, the plan is to create a "living fence" at the end of the driveway. Currently, the old, tired concrete of the driveway turns into weeds and bermuda grass of the back yard. I started on Friday by transplanting six Euonymus Grandiflora from various places in the yard. I pruned the larger ones back to the size of two I grew from cuttings last spring.

There's very little privacy or intimacy. So the plan now, is to create a hedge composed of evergreen shrubs, flowering and fragrant shrubs, a few small trees, and some perennials and annuals. Thanks to the GardenWeb crew in the Cottage Garden forum, here's what I've come up with.

Those will give me year round privacy. I'm looking at a 3 row staggered planting of the evergreens.deciduous shrubs-variegated and wine & roses wigelia blooms in June/July-forsythia (6'x6') blooming now in February-butterfly bush (6'x8') blooms all summer til frost-flowering quince (6'x6') first to bloom usually starting in late January.

For some height variation, I plan to mix in lavender and white crepe myrtles. I'll plant them in the middle row and use the shrubs to protect the roots from the sun.

In between all that, I can plant rosemary, a few knockout roses (pink and yellow), perennials like lavender, blue and purple salvias, shastas, coneflowers, and rudbeckia until the shrubs get established. Annuals will provide a little color this year. And of course there will be spring bulbs like daffodils and hyacinths.

I thought I was done creating beds in this yard. I'm tired of shoveling leaf mulch and tilling. But nonetheless, I'll be heading to the landfill at least 3 times this week to get the two kinds of mulch I will need to create a bed here. Yes, it will take years to complete. I have nothing but time.

It's 39 degrees and sunny. High today expected in the mid-50s. I'll be working in the basement transplanting seedlings into larger containers.